Benefits of Music: How Listening to Music Transforms the Mind
The power and benefits of music
The beauty and power of music is that they make us feel emotions. Powerful music makes us feel powerful, sad music makes us feel sad, and music that is tied to something that happened to us in the past evokes old memories. Only a few notes are needed, and in a second, we are back to a moment in the past where we heard the passage.
It is only in recent times that science proves what we always knew. Music isn’t just entertainment. It is something else altogether and affects us in many layers of thought, emotion, and physicality. Music really is different. Primitive almost.
Music and brain development in children
Music is a powerful way to support kids who need assistance with cognitive and emotional needs. Music builds stronger connections in the visual, auditory, and motor regions of the brain, and it is engaging and fun at the same time.
Additionally, children who go on to be musicians and who are exposed to music early in life develop deeper and wider connections in the corpus callosum, the bridge between the brain’s two hemispheres. In practical terms, that means they develop stronger spatial reasoning, better reading and language skills, and more complex logical pathways
Music as medicine: stroke and neurological recovery
Music is a powerful tool to help patients who have had a left-brain stroke. This type of stroke leaves the right side of the brain mostly intact. The point of music therapy is to allow the undamaged side of the brain to pick up the slack and support the other side. This pattern allows patients to use the right side of the brain to draw on memories of music, melody, rhythm, and the emotional experience of their past music tastes. This is one reason that music therapy is often used in nursing homes.
Music therapy can help patients with Parkinsons disease. The therapist can help patients set movement to a steady beat, which then reduces motor freezing. Rhythm then helps the patient to retrain their gait, stride length, and walking velocity. For people with other traumatic brain injuries, music serves a similar purpose, helping to rebuild and reconnect damaged neural pathways over time.
Music and physical health
Modern life is stressful, and music can help us all. Slow, calming music lowers cortisol. Listening to soothing music before bed increases alpha wave activity in the brain, which can improve sleep quality. That’s not a small thing for anyone who struggles with insomnia.
Almost 30% of adults have insomnia, and that stretches back to children, too. It is well worth listening to soothing music at bedtime as a sleep support.
On the other side of daily life, music makes exercise more enjoyable. Rhythm sets the pace and reduces perceived effort. For moderate-intensity exercise, 120 to 140 BPM is the sweet spot.
Music and pain management
Music can be used as a non-invasive tool for pain management. Pain isn’t purely physical; perception plays a big role in how intensely we experience pain. Music triggers endorphin release and reduces cortisol, thus distracting from both pain and anxiety.
Hospitals use music therapy for pre-surgical patients, during active childbirth, for chronic pain management, and even in the NICU. Music even makes going to the dentist more tolerable.
Music and mental health
Music influences neurotransmitter release, and music therapy is a recognized treatment for anxiety, depression and PTSD.
Slower music slows respiration and heart rate and supports deep relaxation, which is particularly helpful for patients with depression, PTSD, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. It’s one of the more accessible tools available, which matters when we are addressing symptoms and conditions that are resistant to traditional medicine.
Music and memory support for dementia patients
For patients with dementia, music is an anchor to memory and improves quality of life.
Project Alive Inside pairs patients in nursing homes with student volunteers and devices that play personalized playlists tailored to their age and musical history.
Patients in the program who are typically non-responsive become animated, conversational, and emotionally present when they hear familiar music.
This is a video clip from the organization Alive Inside, located in New York, New York. They provide music therapy to individuals living in nursing homes in collaboration with local youth.